Zibbet’s First Place Winner of the ACEO Challenge was Jennifer Maestre with her ACEO created with colored pencils. Not a drawing made with colored pencils, but actual pencils transformed into a 3.5 x 2.5 official-size Art Card sculpture.

You can see the ACEO card that won JenMaestre first place here. Congratulations Jennifer!

Please enjoy this fun interview, leave Jennifer a comment, and then use the Share Tools so others can read it, too. Please spread the Zibbet Love! And be sure to “Pin It”, too! Thanks.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself?

   My name is Jennifer Maestre, I live in Maynard, Massachusetts. I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. When I was a child, my family moved every three years or so, mostly overseas. I’ve been to thirty-six countries, and my dream was to make it to one hundred. Sadly, I don’t think I’m gonna make it, unless I win the lottery.

   I came to Massachusetts to attend college, and have been living in the Boston area ever since. I’ve been a full time artist since 1999, the year I had my first gallery exhibition. My major work is sculpture, made by sewing together thousands of pencil points. I’m lucky enough to have some of those crazy sculptures in the permanent collections of several museums.

   I’m surrounded by pencils, and try to eke out every three dimensional use for them, which led me to making the jewelry and ACEOS, and other random things.

   I have two college degrees, which makes me supremely over-educated for my job as Head Pencil Sharpener.

2. Apart from being ‘creative’ what do you do?

   I sleep a lot. I dance around my studio, looking ridiculous (but no-one else sees, so it doesn’t really matter). I “torture” my cat, or so one would think, judging by the sounds he makes. I read and read lots of books.

3. What inspires you to do the kind of work you do?

   I love playing with pencils. I love all the colors! Sometimes I wish I could have a big enough bin, filled with pencils, so I could dive and swim in them, the way Uncle Scrooge does in his money bin.

4. Do you look up to anyone? Who? Why?

   I look up to pretty much everyone, since I’m only five feet four.

   But seriously, I have always had great admiration for artists who had success in their careers later in life (like Odilon Redon). Those artists inspired me to have the courage to attend Mass Art in my mid-thirties, and to take a crack at this artistic life. They made me feel that it was never too late to become an artist.

5. What other passions do you have in your life?

   I enjoy traveling, and trying to learn how to say “please”, “thank you”, “cat”, and “where is the toilet?” in the language of whichever country I visit.

6. What do you like most about Zibbet?

   I like the look of Zibbet, and the friendly community. I also like the emails I receive, which let me know what is going on.

7. What ‘new’ things would you like to see added to Zibbet?

   I will leave that to greater minds than mine.

8. How do you promote your work?

   Well, aside from entering contests which might get me a crack at being featured seller if I win, *wink*, I don’t do much. I don’t do Facebook, or Twitter, and thus, I can’t Pinterest. I do add a link to my Zibbet shop at the bottom of my emails, that is about the sum of things.

   I’ve been selling my little jewelries and urchins on-line since 2007, and have done fairly well, so I don’t feel any sense of urgency re: jumping through hoops and doing things that take up lots of time and make me feel stressed out.

9. How would you recommend other Zibbeters make the most of Zibbet.com?

   The old “take good photos, put the measurements in your descriptions, don’t charge too much for shipping, and have great customer service” thing.

10. In the future I’d like to be…

    Swimming in a bin of pencils on my own private island. On this island, named “Pencil Island”, I would grow trees to make pencils, and pay all the workers at my pencil factory a living wage.

    Every Monday, we’d have a great big party, and I’d tell my pencil makers how they did a wonderful job, and that I am so glad that they are here to help make the best pencils in the entire world.

Tags: Featured Zibbeters, Jen Maestre